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Birthday Brigadeiros

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As mentioned earlier, last Tuesday was my friend’s 17th birthday. Originally, we didn’t know what we would do, as it seemed that the party might not go as planned without one of our number. It turned out that she could come though and everything went on as was expected.

Ingredients

On Saturday I had swim practice, eight o’clock until eleven. Despite this, I knew I still had to work on part two of my friend’s birthday present-these Brazilian Fudge truffles. I found out about this recipe just last week, while visiting one of my favorite blogs, 17 and Baking. The writer of the blog, Elissa, had come up with some wonderful flavors: cinnamon cayenne, lavender white chocolate, tangerine, to name a few. I decided that this would be a perfect recipe, a stupendous recipe to do for my friend’s birthday. The base was easy, and I would be able to try out my own flavor combinations.

After searching around the internet, I came up with quite a few possibilities for flavors. In the end, three really turned out as I wanted. They were: honey-almond, ginger-coconut, grapefruit vanilla, and lemon grapefruit. I really thought these were the best-there was a mint one I wasn’t terribly fond of.

Now, the reason the mint didn’t turn out very well had to do with my restricted senses of smell and taste due to, I think, a sinus infection…or maybe just a cold. Thus, I kind of over-flavored the mint, and potentially the others as well, though they seemed good to me. Anyways, it was a little difficult and I had to keep asking my mom to come in and try to see if the different flavors were too overpowering.

Coconut Ginger Brigadeiro

Grapefruit Vanilla and Lemon Grapefruit Brigadeiros

So yeah, I think that this was successful over all. They aren’t difficult by any means, and they provide so many options. My favorite of the flavors that worked would be the grapefruit, because it was very bright. This was probably because I added perhaps over two tablespoons of grapefruit zest to 1/5 of the recipe and then rolled the finished balls in a grapefruit-lemon syrup before putting them in powdered sugar. I was going to make a grapefruit curd, but gave up because of time and logistics. The grapefruit idea actually came from Elissa, who said she would have liked to try out grapefruit. I’m glad she thought of such a great combination!

Lemon Zest

Here is the base recipe from 17 and Baking, along with approximate instructions for my Brigadeiro flavors.

Stir all ingredients together and cook in a saucepan over medium heat for about 10 or 15 minutes. When I made this recipe, I actually don’t think I cooked the ingredients long enough, because it was a little granular. Elissa from 17 and Baking emphasizes that the ingredients should form a dough that pulls away easily from the pan after cooking long enough. I think perhaps she means like the dough for choux paste, which, after the flour is added and cooked for a moment forms a consistency like the one described.

My variations-Approximate:

Honey Almond

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 Tablespoons Honey

Cocoa powder for rolling

Coconut Ginger

1 teaspoon Fresh grated ginger

3 tablespoons coconut, plus more for rolling

Lemon

1/8 teaspoon lemon extract

1 1/2 tablespoons Lemon zest, at least

Powdered Sugar for rolling

Grapefruit Vanilla

2 tablespoons Grapefruit zest, at least

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered Sugar for rolling

Syrup for Grapefruit and Lemon

Juice from half a large grapefruit

Juice from one lemon

2 tablespoons sugar

-You will now have one fifth left over. I used the last fifth for the mint Brigadeiros (not pictured) but I am not providing the variation as I really am unsure how I would fix what I did last time.

Honey Almond:

Mix in the almond extract and the honey. Shape into balls with greased hands and roll in cocoa powder.

Coconut Ginger:

Stir in ginger and coconut until well combined. Roll in coconut.

Lemon and Syrup:

Stir in lemon zest and extract. For the syrup, cook the juices and sugar over about medium heat for five minutes until slightly thickened. Roll the Brigadeiros in the syrup until well coated. Then, roll in powdered sugar, making sure that the syrup is absorbed by the sugar so that more can be applied.

Grapefruit Vanilla:

Do same as with lemon, but using grapefruit zest and vanilla. Roll in syrup and powdered sugar accordingly.

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About Madeleine C.

Hi I'm Madeleine and I am an avid cook and baker! Between school, homework swimming, and everything else in my life, I really enjoy cooking! I am 15 (now 16) years old, and have two brothers, both of whom have celiac disease along with my father. For this reason, I often make gluten-free things that will satisfy them as well as those who can readily consume gluten. I enjoy making the complex and the simple, and enjoy a challenge while cooking. That's just about it!